


A New Familiar

by Lyssandra_Med



Series: One-Shot [58]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Creature Hermione Granger, F/F, Fluff, Mild Smut, Polyjuice Gone Wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:28:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25668226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyssandra_Med/pseuds/Lyssandra_Med
Summary: What if the Polyjuice Potion had done more?What if a little black cat was more than she seemed?---or; What if Hermione was a little more stuck as a result of her mishap, and Bellatrix a little nicer.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Bellatrix Black Lestrange
Series: One-Shot [58]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1429282
Comments: 2
Kudos: 185





	A New Familiar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bibop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibop/gifts), [wooden_turtle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wooden_turtle/gifts).



> Mild-Editing

It really shouldn’t have happened like this. The story had begun well enough, but now? 

Now it was off the rails, onto a new trajectory that Hermione couldn’t understand.

One minute she  _ was _ Hermione, young and filled with wonder at the world she had been excluded from for all her life.

The next moment she was somewhere lower on the ground, still herself but filled with  _ Other, _ slinking to the edges of the room and bypassing two boys who had managed their potion much better than she had.

Hermione mewled and roughed the fur upon her paw with a sharp tongue that felt foreign and  _ right. _

Hermione ran.

\---

Bellatrix was lost and broken.

Her precious Lord had helped them to escape but some odd turn of events had ended their renewed uprising faster than anyone might have predicted.  _ Might _ have predicted because in Bellatrix’s opinion none of them were coward enough to imagine this as the end.

The Old Goat had shown up with a posse of Phoenix’s behind him, the little brat following at his heels.

One or two spells were exchanged, massive and damaging but nowhere near the calamity that had been visited upon Grindelwald.

Then it was done.

What an absolute waste of fifteen years. What a massive waste of energy, time and talent that Bellatrix knew she would never, ever get back. All of it for nothing at all.

Bellatrix was pissed, sad and lonely.  _ Hurting. _

But the little black cat that she found, with its beautiful auburn eyes, was more than enough to help her escape the dark thoughts that hounded her. If Bellatrix judged it right, then the abandoned hovel deep within the Forbidden Forest had not been inhabited by anyone human in quite a long time. Still, the cat had been here and Bellatrix simply moved in with her rather than displace the little feline.

As the days turned on and she came to know the land, the cat, her new lot in life, Bellatrix grew complacent. Perhaps something  _ good _ could come of all this.

Perhaps, in time, she would be able to enact all her own changes.

\---

Gaining herself a familiar wasn’t really that hard, at least not compared to the madness and trials she had undergone in school, or when she first joined with Voldemort’s forces. The cat was already here, and Bellatrix knew that the rolling waves of magic that fell from it were  _ powerful _ . It felt like the cold wind falling from a block of ice, a soothing balm to Bellatrix’s more haggard and overheated moments. Kneazle or no, this cat would do just fine.

Besides, why shouldn’t she be involved? Bellatrix knew that she couldn’t readily go back to her sisters; Narcissa was by now housebound due to the Ministry seeking some form of reprisal, and Andromeda had made it quite clear that her opinion of Bellatrix had gone from bad -  _ while still in school _ \- to worse -  _ once the Dark finally knighted her _ \- and no one else was left to help her. She supposed that if she genuinely wanted to she could Polyjuice herself into the form of someone else and wander around Knockturn or even Diagon for a while, perhaps find herself a good familiar from one of the many shops that existed deep within the twisting alleys. But that would take more time and effort than she was willing to expend and Polyjuice was liable to fade at the worst moments.

No, it was best she simply remain here and use up what she had. All of the ingredients she needed for the ritual were available within the forest after all, and this cat had seen her through a darkness worse than Azkaban. She was far too good of a companion to replace with something storebought.

The cat was beautiful, dark and willing to bask in the sun while Bellatrix looked on and wished for such a simple life. She was quiet as well, never once hissing at her or mewling like some kitten. She also hadn’t even  _ scratched  _ Bellatrix. Unusually polite, smart, and attentive. She could lead Bellatrix to caves that held ingredients or food, point out things for her to harvest that she would have never found all on her own.

The little thing also knew just how to curl up atop Bellatrix’s abdomen late at night when it was cold, becoming a form of purring heating pad that kept her safe and calm whenever the shadows grew too pointed. No one was out there looking for her, and Bellatrix decided then and there that it was best she kept it that way.

Get herself a familiar, build herself back up.

Simple.

\---

Not so simple.

Actually, Bellatrix decided, saying it like that was more a disservice than anything else.

It was ridiculous. The cat she had chosen as her familiar had ended up being less of a  _ cat _ and more of a person  _ portraying _ a cat.

Familiar bonds were easy to initiate, so easy that even a simple school-child could do it during their first week of orientation at Hogwarts. Bellatrix knew this and  _ still _ she had at first wondered if she’d gone and messed it all up. Perhaps enacted some sort of transfiguration, or maybe even broken some curse.

A beautiful woman stood before her now, tall and rigid in the little hut that Bellatrix had called home these past four years. Magnificent and striking with her mixture of auburn and brunette hair, eyes a gleaming yellow that drew her in and frame all lithe with just the hint of mystery.

Mystery because she was not fully human. No, instead of being just like Bellatrix she was instead endowed with a few more feline traits; the woman had claws in place of nails, though these did not retract. A long tail swished and twirled behind her in time to mood or unconscious thought. A rough tongue that looked far more like a rasp than an implement for talking and eating dashed out between her lips as she lifted her nose and smelled everything and anything. There was even a faint dusting of fur between the meeting of her legs that continued upwards in a line that slowly disappeared into her skin.

And of course there were the ears, two pointed and fur-tipped ears that tilted and swivelled whenever Bellatrix scratched her. Partaking in that experiment had yielded Bellatrix the sound of a beautiful purr beating from the woman’s chest and into her own, delightful and fulfilling in a way that only something magical could achieve.

“Who are you?” Bellatrix asked, delighted at having something so unique all to herself, something to focus on instead of her own fucked up attempts at initiating change from somewhere so far away from Wizarding society.

“I don’t know, but I think I could be Hermione.” The cat-witch replied with her face a mask of confusion that swiftly fled in favour of delight when Bellatrix leaned in, a cheek pressed against her own and that lovely purr radiating through them both.

Odd, and yet Bellatrix quite liked it.

\---

Searching out the  _ why _ of the girl was a far easier task than Bellatrix could have imagined. A quick stroll into the woman’s mind was all she really needed to pluck out her prior history -  _ though admittedly it was somewhat annoying when all recollection cut off at the point she had become a cat, something about the memories not filtering through the two very different minds _ \- had led Bellatrix to all the right conclusions.

Hermione Granger, a disappeared Second Year at Hogwarts and a muggle-born.

Not that someone being a muggle-born or pure-blood meant very much of anything nowadays. Countless hours of reflection had left Bellatrix with a space of time in which to purge herself of the notions of purity that had infected her so. It was clear now after years by herself and years with this cat-witch that those beliefs didn’t really matter or reflect reality.

Her Lord had been a half-blood and been downed by another, and if that meant nothing at all then she would eat her wand.

Besides, strange times made for strange bedfellows and Bellatrix found her current one quite likeable. Hermione could cast most spells with only minimal training in wandless magic and seemed to be a repository for knowledge that would have made her far more academically inclined sisters envious. That she went out of her way to be as approachable and physical in her semi-human state as her feline one was simply a bonus.

It was only a matter of time before some half-baked idea or ritual led them to this point.

\---

The binding of their souls through the Familiar ritual wasn’t so much a reaction of the ritual itself as it was the reaction of the souls of those partaking. 

Bellatrix would readily admit that her marriage to Rod hadn’t been for anything at all other than political standing. He was kind enough and kept to his own dalliances while she had hers, but they weren’t soul-mates at all and neither one would claim to love the other. He had his women and men, she had her own women and men. The marriage itself was dressed for their names but not their hearts, and she was free to choose another.

But Hermione was a different sort of seduction.  _ Different _ in a way that left Bellatrix quite speechless, and the night of their first fully structured ritual as Familiar and Mistress had led to their first night shared within the bed as equals more than partners.

A hand probing between her legs with soft innocence, almost too embarrassed to be there and shy bordering on needing affirmation that what it was doing was well received. Bellatrix praised her, drank in the rolling purr and pet along the curving tips of Hermione’s ears. Whispered sweet nothings that she would have never thought herself capable of before. 

But she  _ was _ capable of it, and the rasping tongue soon placed against her centre was  _ delightful. _ Rapturous even. So delectable that she moaned deeply when the claws were dragged against her skin, gasped with fervent energy when sharp teeth moved from her inner thigh and towards a far sweeter centre.

Rolled them both over, lowered herself until she could kiss and lick and suck at the extra nubs atop Hermione’s chest in a move that brought evident delight to the cat-witch even if they were there more for show than anything else.

Their ecstasy capped off that night, both of them flooding with a power she had never really thought to imagine as her own.

\---

Their story ended far more straightforward than either would have imagined when they were younger. There was no sudden overthrowing of Wizarding society, and there was no massive fight from which Bellatrix could not walk away.

There was just herself, old and yet still young by all the standards of their world, younger even for the magic she wielded that repaired and rejuvenated her. There was only Hermione, rolling from being a cat to a not-cat to becoming a lover that she cherished with all her heart.

It was an odd turn of events but one that Bellatrix distinctly enjoyed.

Loved, even.


End file.
